A day after dozens of the spray-painted red animals showed up on the new planter boxes along Wall and North Front streets, someone added white numerals to each.

At the same time, a "Save the Kingston Goats" page was created on Facebook, and it had 111 "likes" just before 4 p.m. Wednesday. A few minutes later, though, the page was gone, presumably removed by the person who created it.

Detective Lt. Egidio Tinti, who heads the Detective Division of the Kingston Police Department, said police are questioning people around Uptown about both the goats, which apparently were spray-painted late Monday or early Tuesday, and the numbers, which were added a day later.

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People who were vocal in their opposition to the recent renovations of Uptown's Pike Plan canopies are among those being questioned, Tinti said. Twenty-two planter boxes were installed as part of the Pike Plan project.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of the $1.8 million canopy project is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

One of the outspoken opponents of the canopy project, Uptown business owner Eric Francis Coppolino, took umbrage at the suggestions on Tuesday by Alderman Thomas Hoffay and city Economic Development Director Steve Finkle that foes of the Pike Plan renovation may have been responsible for the graffiti.

Coppolino, who owns the Blue Photo Studio on North Front Street, said the comments by Hoffay, D-Ward 2, and Finkle were "inappropriate."

"If the goats said 'oppose the Pike Plan' ... that would be one thing," Coppolino said. "But they are just goats with numbers on them, and any one of the now 7 billion people on the planet might have put those goats there."

He also said that "to assume (the graffiti) is a political statement is an overreach."

Kingston Mayor James Sottile said the canopy project, though difficult at times, turned out to be "beautiful" and the graffiti "is unfortunate and very sad commentary on our society."

"For anyone to try and destroy public property is just unfortunate set of circumstances," the mayor said.

Asked if he thought Pike Plan opponents were responsible for the graffiti, Sottile said he was unsure.

"I don't know who did it, but I wouldn't exclude them," he said.

The opponents of the renovation said the canopies, which have been in place since the mid-1970s, should have been torn down rather than refurbished.

Hoffay said the graffiti is no different than the gang tags found on the side of some buildings in Kingston

"Bloods, Crips, goats -- it's all the same," he said. "If people had graffiti put on their cars, it would be no different. ... There are no adults in the room here."

The Pike Plan was named for the late Woodstock artist John Pike, who designed the canopies and oversaw their construction.

Over the years, though, the canopies fell into a state of disrepair, in part because of poor drainage.

The refurbished canopies feature pitched roofs (the old roofs were flat), skylights, new columns and additional lighting.